Eternal Duels
by Makaro
Summary: A story about a duelist named Ken who's life gets turned around when he ends up on a champion dueling team called the Spirit Breakers. But they've got more than just other duelists to beat...
1. A Fortunate Error

CHAPTER 1: A FORTUNATE ERROR  
  
A few days had passed since the duel where Seto Kaiba had been defeated by the young duelist named Yugi. Kaiba decided to decline his invitation to the Duel Monsters Tournament at Duelist Kingdom.  
  
One of Kaiba's agents came into his office and told him, "Sir, in America there has seemed to have been a mistake in the printing of a Duel Monsters booster pack. It seems that a small glitch has caused there to be a Blue Eyes White Dragon card printed into a pack of cards."  
  
"So what you're telling me is that a fifth Blue Eyes White Dragon card has been made?" Kaiba asked.  
  
"Correct sir," the man said.  
  
"I want you to find the location of the card and get Jameson on the job."  
  
"I'm sorry sir. Mr. Jameson is on an assignment in-"  
  
"Say no more. This is a hard time, but I'll do it myself. I could use some success to cheer me up. Where is the precise location to where the pack containing the card was sent to?"  
  
"Portland, Oregon. We've hacked in far enough to discover it will be sent to the Genesis Comics & Cards Shop."  
  
"Prepare a flight." Kaiba had a dangerous smile on his face. He would do anything to destroy that Blue Eyes White Dragon.  
  
Anything. * * * Two days later in Portland, Oregon.  
  
With a Duel Monsters City Tournament about a month away, a boy named Ken Richter had to improve his deck, just to get it into better standard. He went into the Genesis Comics & Cards Shop to buy a pack of Duel Monsters cards. He paid for it and went outside.  
  
"Lets see what we have here.." he said opening the pack. He received some decent cards. Flame Cerebrus, Kuriboh, and a few others. Then he got to the last one.  
  
"What the heck?!" he said looking down to see he was holding a Blue Eyes White Dragon. After a moment passed he said, "This has got to be mistake. They're out of print. This can't be real..." "Excuse me," he heard someone say. He looked up to see he was facing a Japanese teenage boy with brown hair wearing a purple robe. "I'm Seto Kaiba. You wouldn't happen to be holding a Blue Eyes White Dragon card there, would you?"  
  
"I can't believe it either," Ken said. "I think this is fake."  
  
"That's not a fake," Kaiba said. "And I'll be willing to pay any price to have it."  
  
"Wait a second!" Ken said. "You're the Seto Kaiba, the undefeated Japanese champion?"  
  
Kaiba looked down and said, "Well, I used to be." Then he quickly looked up, with his eyes sharpened. "Listen, how much do you want for it?"  
  
"It's a good card. I think I'll keep it."  
  
Ken heard Kaiba whisper, "Twice in a month." Kaiba then looked angry. "Listen, I want that card! It's my symbol. I'll buy it or I'll give you any other card for it."  
  
"I don't think so," Ken said. "I'm keeping it."  
  
"Then lets hold a duel. If I win, I get to buy that card. If you win, you can keep the card and get the money anyway."  
  
"Where do we duel?"  
  
"You pick. Don't they have a mini-arena inside this shop?"  
  
"Yeah, I think."  
  
"Then how about it?"  
  
"It's a duel."  
  
Ken and Kaiba stood on opposite sides of the small dueling field on a table and shuffled their decks. Once they finished Kaiba said, "We each begin with 2000 life points. First player to hit zero loses the match. It's time to duel. You move first."  
  
Ken drew five cards. He held a 7 Colored Fish, Paralyzing Potion, Fissure, Acid Trap Hole, and Flame Cererbus.  
  
"I summon the Flame Cerebus in Attack Mode," Ken said, placing a Flame Cerebus card face up. A Flame Cerebrus had an attack of 2100 points and a defense of 1800."  
  
"Impressive monster," Kaiba said. "But I've got something slightly better. I summon the Judge Man in attack mode. Ken looked down to see Kaiba had summoned monster with attack points of 2200 and defense points of 1500. "Attack."  
  
The mini-field Ken and Kaiba were using had a small virtual hologram projector, but you could see the action as the Judge Man charged at the Flame Cererbus, destroying it with a tackle. The attack made Ken's total Life Points go from 2000 down to 1900.  
  
Ken smiled like he was a bigshot. "I expected more from you, Kaiba. A one- hundred life point loss? That doesn't quite faze me."  
  
Kaiba chucked. "The duel has just begun. I have monsters much stronger than that."  
  
Ken drew from his hand his mighty Gaia the Fierce Knight monster with an attack of 2300 and a defense of 2100. "Attack, Gaia!" And hologram showed Gaia charging at the Judge Man on his horse, destroying the warrior. Now Kaiba had also lost 100 life points. "I'm not as weak as you think I am, am I?"  
  
Kaiba drew a card and smiled. "I summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon!" He placed down the Blue Eyes White Dragon card which had an attack of 3000 and defense of 2500. An incredibly strong monster. "And I'll place a card face down." Kaiba placed a face-down card in one of the Magic-Trap Card slots. "I won't attack this turn." Kaiba was obviously giving Ken time to be traumatized.  
  
Ken, completely freaked out because he had never faced a monster as strong as the Blue Eyes, drew a magic card called Fissure. Fissure had an effect that could destroy the monster on you opponent's side of the field with the lowest attack. Since Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon was the only monster on his side of the field and it was face up, Ken could use Fissure and destroy it. "I activate Fissure!"  
  
"No, you don't!" Kaiba said, flipping his face-down card up, revealing it to be Ultimate Offering, which has an effect where you can sacrifice 500 life points and send out a new monster. Kaiba sent out a weak monster called Rouge Doll. It was weaker than the Blue Eyes. "Too bad." Since Rogue Doll is weaker than the Blue Eyes, all your Fissure will do is destroy her." And the Rouge Doll was destroyed and discarded as well as the Fissure.  
  
I don't think I can do this Ken thought. The Blue Eyes is too powerful. I'll lose this duel. He'll get my Blue Eyes, and that's the strongest monster I have.  
  
"Give it up," Kaiba said. "Surrender and I'll still pay for the Blue Eyes White Dragon you have." He drew a card and smiled. "I will equip my Blue Eyes White Dragon With two of my Sword of The Deep-Seated magic cards, raising his attack to 4000. And I'll also equip my Blue Eyes White Dragon with the Ring of Magnetism, decreasing its attack and defense by 500 points, but also making it so that Blue Eyes White Dragon will be the only monster you'll be allowed to attack. Now with an attack of 3500, Blue Eyes White Dragon, attack!" The holograms showed the Blue Eyes White Dragon shooting a blue beam out of its mouth and destroying Ken's Gaia The Fierce Knight monster. Ken's total Life Points dropped from 1900 to 700. "Feeling confident now?"  
  
The truth was that Ken felt horrible. As he drew from his deck he found nothing but a weak Mystic Clown (ATK/1550 DEF/1000.) "I'll place this card in defense mode." And he put the Mystic Clown face down. And then he realized he had a magic card in his hand that could save him the duel.  
  
"Defense mode?" Kaiba said. "Getting a little weak, aren't you? I'll just draw from my deck here."  
  
"Stop!" Ken said. "Who said my turn is over?"  
  
"What else can you do?" Kaiba asked.  
  
Ken grinned. His confidence returned. He placed a magic card called Paralyzing Potion on top of the Blue Eyes White Dragon card. "When the Paralyzing Potion is equipped to any monster, that monster can't attack. So right now, you're Blue Eyes White Dragon is useless."  
  
Kaiba definitely looked mad. His prized monster was now unusable. He drew a card and then smiled. "True, my Blue Eyes White Dragon cannot attack. But I'll put down a monster that can." Just then, Kaiba placed another Blue Eyes White Dragon face-up in the field. "Didn't expect my second Blue Eyes to come out so quickly, did you?" Ken's confidence fell once more. "Blue Eyes White Dragon, attack!" And then the standard lighting beam came from the Blue Eyes and destroyed the Mystic Clown. But since the Mystic Clown was in defense mode, no Life Point damage was done. "This duel will be over soon.  
  
Ken drew a magic card called Ookazi, which could automatically do 800 damage to Kaiba's Life Points. Ken placed his 7 Colored Fish monster (ATK/1800 DEF/800) in defense mode. "I'll place this monster face-down and I'll activate this magic card!" Ken showed Kaiba the Ookazi. "Your Life Points go down to 600!"  
  
"Not bad," Kaiba said. "But not too good either." He drew a card and once again did that annoying smile. He turned his new card around and revealed it to be De-Spell, which can destroy Magic Cards. "I'll use this to destroy the Paralyzing Potion you attached to my first Blue Eyes." And then the Paralyzing Potion was gone, allowing Kaiba's first Blue Eyes White Dragon to attack. "Attack, Blue Eyes White Dragon!" And the 7 Colored Fish was destroyed. Again, no Life Point Damage.  
  
Ken then drew a great monster, the Dark Magician. It was one of his strongest monsters. "I'll place this in defense position." And so he did.  
  
Kaiba drew a card and played it, revealing it to be Defense Paralysis, a card that switches all monsters to attack position. "So now your monster must arise to attack mode." When Kaiba saw that it was the Dark Magician he said, "Your deck is almost like.well, never mind. I should attack with my first Blue Eyes, but I'm interested to see what other cards you have in your deck, so I will lengthen the duel by attacking with my second Blue Eyes White Dragon." And so, Kaiba's second Blue Eyes White Dragon destroyed the Dark Magician, leaving Ken's Life Points at 200. "Your move, although I promise you that during my next turn I'll win."  
  
Ken drew a magic card called Tremendous Fire, which had an effect where Ken could do 1000 Life Point damage to Kaiba, but in a side effect of 500 Life Point damage to him. It would be a draw. Then a though struck Ken! "Kaiba, what happens if this duel ends in a draw?"  
  
Kaiba thought for a second. "If it ends in a draw, then nothing happens. I don't get your Blue Eyes White Dragon, and you don't get any money."  
  
Ken grinned. It was the only way to keep his new Blue Eyes White Dragon now. He played the Tremendous fire. "I use the Tremendous fire, where 1000 Life Point Damage is done to you, and 500 Life Point Damage is done to be. Ending this duel in a draw."  
  
"What?!" Kaiba exclaimed. "I can't believe it! What's happening to me.? This can't be.."  
  
* * * Later that night, in Ken's bedroom.  
  
Ken laid down on his bed, staring at his ceiling, his deck in his hand. He had survived a duel against Seto Kaiba. He was proud of his victory, but he remembered what Kaiba had told him after the duel.."Keep that Blue Eyes White Dragon card. Use it in your duels. But if you ever set foot in a Japanese Duel Monsters Tournament, I'll take that card of yours and rip it into pieces.."  
  
It didn't even matter now. The Duel Monsters City Tournament was a month away and Ken thought he would do fine. Maybe even win. Until then, his deck would need more improvement.  
  
* * * Esplin Association Headquarters  
  
The Esplin Association was the host of Duel Monsters City Tournament in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. They were also the owners of many cards and comics shops in the northwestern area of the United States.  
  
The owner, Mr. Wayne Esplin, was sitting in his office handling contracts and orders, when one of his secretaries came in and handed him a floppy disk. "This came in the mail," she said. "It's for you, sir."  
  
He took the disk and popped it into his computer's A: Drive. The disk contained one file: a media clip. Mr. Esplin clicked on the icon with the media file and his Windows Media Player opened up. The movie showed a small bald man with glasses.  
  
The man said, "Hello, Mr. Esplin. I work at the Genesis Comics & Cards Shop and I have witnessed that Seto Kaiba, the number one ranked Duel Monsters duelist has come into our store and had a duel with one of our fluent customers named Ken Richter. The match ended in a draw. We know that the skills of young duelists captures your attention, so I decided to alert you about this young boy. If you would like some more information on this duelist, send me an email at k_thompson9164@genesisshop.com. Have a nice day, sir." The movie ended.  
  
Mr. Esplin turned his chair around to face a window that showed the other towers of downtown Portland. "A skilled duelist.hmm.."  
  
* * * At Portland Middle School.  
  
A week had passed since Ken had his duel against Kaiba. During the first day of the new school year, Ken told his friend Stefan, who was also a duelist, what had happened.  
  
"You against Seto Kaiba?" Stefan said. "Yeah, right."  
  
"I'm telling the truth," Ken said. He took out his deck and showed Stefan the Blue Eyes White Dragon card. "See? It's right there."  
  
Stefan didn't take his eyes off the card. "Wow. No kidding. so the duel ended in a draw?"  
  
"Yeah, right after I used my Tremendous Fire card."  
  
"So how do you think Kaiba knew that you had this Blue Eyes?"  
  
"I don't know. But do you think you could somehow hack into KaibaCorp's data and find out for me?"  
  
"Sure, lets go to my house after school."  
  
Stefan and Ken were in were in Stefan's room using his computer. "Okay, it should be set up now. But turn around. I don't want anyone to see how I do this." Ken did as he was told and turned around, only hearing the tapping on Stefan's keyboard. "Done. You can look now."  
  
Ken looked at the screen and he saw a list of different files, all part of KaibaCorp's network. "Click on that." Ken pointed to a file called seto_diary.doc. Stefan clicked on it. A word file opened up and most of it was in text that wasn't real until the boys saw a part of the file that was in Japanese letters.  
  
"I think I'll be able to translate this...alright, it'll take a while. Let's go watch some TV or something."  
  
The boys watched some anime cartoons in Stefan's room until they heard the computer beep, and they rushed over to it. The document had changed. The weird text was still the same, but the Japanese had changed into English. "Let's see what we have here.." They saw a good paragraph of English that read:  
  
Takaishi had alerted me that in America there was some kind of misprint in a pack of Duel Monster cards and that a Blue Eyes White Dragon card was made. I'm going into Portland, Oregon in the United States tomorrow to take care of this matter, because I could never let a Blue Eyes White Dragon card fall into the hands of a duelist that would enter a world tournament and challenged me. It would seem funny that this would happen around now, especially since I had already dealt with the fourth Blue Eyes White Dragon card recently. My plan would be to pay money for the Blue Eyes White Dragon card to whoever gets it.  
  
"Yeah, like that worked," Ken said. "See if there's anything else." Stefan scrolled down the page until they found another two paragraph in English:  
  
I've just returned from American. My plan to buy the fifth Blue Eyes White Dragon from the duelist who had bought it had failed. I challenged him to a duel, and I did not win. But I didn't lose either. It somehow ended in a draw, due to the Tremendous Fire magic card. Well, with the fourth Blue Eyes destroyed and now a fifth one created, there are once again four Blue Eyes White Dragon cards in the world.  
  
But my visit to Portland, Oregon paid off. As I toured the Genesis Comics & Cards shop, I discovered that there would be a Duel Monsters City Tournament taking place. It seems that the Esplin Association, which is the host of the tournament, has a created a prize card for the victor of the competition known as the Golden Eyes Supreme Dragon. A card so incredible it is stronger than the Blue Eyes White Dragon itself. So I have decided to hire a duelist and send him to compete in the tournament for me so that the Golden Eyes Supreme Dragon would be mine. It's a shame I couldn't go. But I still have matters to attend to. There are some things that I have to take care of at the tournament at Duelist Kingdom as well.  
  
"Whoa," Ken said. "That Kaiba creep is sending someone to the tournament to get that rare card."  
  
"All the better reason we should be at the competition," Stefan said.  
  
"You're going to be in the tournament?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
"That's cool. Well, I better get going."  
  
When Ken got home that day his dad asked him, "How was school?"  
  
"It was alright," Ken said.  
  
"Well, a letter came for you in the mail today, from the company that's hosting that tournament you're going to be in." Ken's dad gave him an envelope.  
  
Ken went into his room and sat down on his bed, opening the envelope. It seemed like the real business-type letter. The letter read:  
  
  
  
Dear Mr. Ken Richter,  
  
My sources have told me that you have recently held a Duel Monsters match against Seto Kaiba, the Japanese champion duelist, in the Genesis Comics & Cards shop. Even ending a draw against a duelist like Seto Kaiba seems like a great accomplishment, showing us that you are a skilled duelist. It has come to our attention that, even though you've never competed in a Duel Monsters tournament, that we are giving the title of an expert duelist. We realize that your duel against Seto Kaiba wasn't an official match, but it has drawn our attention. We have also discovered that you have signed up for our Duel Monsters City Tournament in Portland, and we can't wait to see you there.  
  
Signed, Wayne Esplin President and C.E.O. of Esplin Association  
  
"Wow, this is getting serious," Ken said. "I'm starting to think it would be better if I never bought that pack of cards with that Blue Eyes White Dragon. Oh well. all I can do now is wait and prepare for the tournament." 


	2. The Competitors

CHAPTER 2: THE COMPETITORS  
  
The next day Ken went back to the Genesis Cards & Comics Shop to buy another pack of cards. The pack didn't contain anything that good, aside from a Pumpking The King of Ghosts (ATK 1800 DEF/2000) and a Share The Pain magic card, which has an effect where you must discard one of your monsters and your opponent must do the same. Not worthy of Ken's deck.  
  
And then it happened. A boy with curly blonde walked over to Ken and said, "My name's Jake. I saw you here last week. You defeated Seto Kaiba, the Japanese champion duelist! I want to duel you." And so, Ken and Jake ended up playing a duel on the mini-arena in the shop. It wasn't that interesting..  
  
"My 7 Colored Fish attacks your Jellyfish and destroys it," Ken said, making his finishing move at the end of the short duel. "That would wipe out your remaining Life Points." It may have been a little too easy, but this duel relaxed him from the one against Kaiba.  
  
"Wow, you're good." Jake said. "Are you going to be in the City Tournament?"  
  
"Yeah, it'll be my first," Ken said. "Are you planning on being in the competition?"  
  
"No, I don't think I'm good enough," Jake said. "I'm too much of a beginner."  
  
"Well, I noticed your deck is pretty big."  
  
"Yeah, I just loaded every single card I had into it. I'm going to need to pull the bad cards out of it, but I'm not really sure which cards are good for my deck and which aren't."  
  
"Well, if you want, I can do it for you."  
  
The boys sat at a table and after a while, Ken took all the weak cards out of Jake's deck."  
  
"Wow, thanks," Jake said. "For helping me out, here, have this card." Jake handed Ken a De-Spell.  
  
"The card that destroys magic cards," Ken said, looking down at it. "I can't take that. You should keep it."  
  
"No, take it, let it be a thank you present."  
  
"Okay then," Ken said, taking the card and placing it in his deck.  
  
* * * Meanwhile at KaibaCorp Headquarters.  
  
"I'll need you to go into Portland, Oregon in American and compete in its upcoming city Duel Monster Tournament." Kaiba told a young boy. Kaiba stared at him suspiciously. He had spiky brown hair and sharp, icy blue eyes. He wore black clothes and his deck was stored in a compartment that was on the belt he wore. The boy couldn't let anyone know he was working for Kaiba. If word got out, he might be disqualified from the tournament.  
  
"Sure," the boy said. "But I must ask, why do you really want me to compete in a tournament that you can so easily win?"  
  
"I told you," Kaiba said. "I haven't got the time. And I want that prize. Now listen up, when you win the tournament, don't you dare go running off with it. If you do so, I will hunt you down and burn every card in your deck."  
  
"But I keep the prize money, right?"  
  
"It's not the prize money I care about, but the card that I do. So you understand your job, correct?"  
  
The boy nodded, thinking this tournament is going to be very fun. Very fun indeed.  
  
* * * About three weeks later, back in Portland.  
  
"Welcome to the Duel Monsters Portland City Tournament, hosted by the Esplin Association!" said the announcer over a microphone.  
  
"And box office money being collected by," Stefan said. He and Ken made it to the tournament, held in a convention center downtown. They had set up one huge arena in the middle of the room, where the announcer was next to. Above the arena was a cube with screens on each side. It was so that the audience could see the action, because they were going to be sitting in rows of chairs surrounding the arena. And they would never be high enough to actually the see the field.  
  
"This is going to be great," Ken said, looking around at all the duelists that were participating. The tournament would officially start in about half an hour.  
  
"32 duelists have signed up for the tournament, so there will be four main rounds of the tournament all leading up to the final round where the two top duelists will duel for a prize of $5,000 and a rare, one-of-a-kind Golden Eyes Supreme Dragon card! And for the rest of this week, every one of the duelists you see around here will try to win those prizes!" the announcer exclaimed.  
  
"Ken?"  
  
Stefan and Ken turned around to find Jake standing there. "Hey, Jake!" Ken said. "You've come to watch the tournament?"  
  
"Yeah! It's seems they've got a line-up of tough duelists."  
  
"Definitely. Oh! By the way, this is my friend Stefan." Ken introduced Stefan to Jake.  
  
"Well, I'll guess I'll see you on the arena," Jake said.  
  
"See you later," Ken said. And as Jake left, Stefan and Ken continued to look around the convention center.  
  
"Will all expert level duelists please report here?" the announcer said.  
  
"Guess that's me," Ken said, and he walked over to the announcer. Ken was surprised to see that he, a boy dressed in black, and a teenage girl with long red hair were the only duelists who reported to the announcer. I guess there aren't that many experts here in Portland Ken thought.  
  
The announcer took out a piece of paper and said, "Can you each tell me your names?"  
  
"Ivan Griffin," the boy dressed in black said.  
  
"Holly Smith," the teenage girl said.  
  
"Ken Richter," Ken said. After Ken said his name, the boy dressed in black, Ivan, smiled suspiciously at Ken, like he'd seen him before. Then it hit Ken! This must be the guy who Kaiba sent!  
  
"Okay, thank you," the announcer said. "Now, first I'd like to congratulate you on your performances in previous dueling events. And I'd also like to tell you that whatever pressure you feel is unnecessary because no one will be placing bets on you, no one will ask you to win; all the audience is here for is some Duel Monsters entertainment." Ken and the other two kids nodded. "But I ask you to try your best in these duels, because even though this is just for fun, the audience wants a good show." The kids nodded again. "Okay, you can go now."  
  
The kids walked off together when Ivan said, "Just for fun? Whatever. I'm here to win, and that's what I'm going to do."  
  
"Wait a second!" Holly said. "I've seen you in a Duel Monsters Tournament on TV! Your duels take forever!"  
  
"That was in L.A. Here in Oregon, I think I can just take the prize away easily."  
  
"Well, I'm going to try my hardest to win."  
  
"I'll just walk all over you."  
  
Ken watched as Ivan kept trash-talking Holly and she came up with non- insulting comeback. Until she finally said, "Fine, if you're so smart, how about we have a little exhibition duel right now?"  
  
"I suppose," Ivan said. "It would be a complete waste of time, but I could use a warm-up." Ivan turned to Ken. "Do you want to be the witness for when I defeat her in a duel."  
  
"Nobody says your going to win." Holly said sweetly.  
  
Ivan ignored her and said, "Well, how about it?"  
  
"Uh, sure," Ken said. "I guess I'll watch."  
  
The three duelists went away from the audience to a place where many duelists were having practice duels on tables with dueling fields (without virtual hologram devices) They sat down at a table away from a group of a large about of duelists and Holly and Ivan shuffled they're decks.  
  
"I'll be a gentlemen and let you move first," Ivan said, drawing five cards.  
  
Holly drew five cards and looked at her hand. Nothing useful except. "I summon the Gyakutenno Megami." She placed down a fairy-type monster (ATK 1800 DEF/200.) "And that ends my first turn.  
  
"You just made the move that will cost you the duel," Ivan said. "First, I will place a card face-down on the magic and trap card zone." And he did. "And now, I'll summon the mighty Launcher Spider, with a destructive attack of 2200 and a defense of 2500! But I'll raise its attack to 2700 by equipping it with the Sword of The Deep-Seated!" Ivan placed down his Launcher Spider with a magic card under it. "And my Launcher Spider attacks you Gyakutenno Megami and your weak monster is destroyed. That brings your Life Points down to 1100"  
  
"Oh no," Holly said, discarding her destroyed monster. She drew a card and looked at her hand. The best she could do would be to place here Empress Judge (ATK 2100 DEF/1700) in defense mode. "I'll place this card in defense mo-"  
  
"And I'll activate my face-down trap card," Ivan said. "It's called the Acid Trap Hole, and it destroys monsters that have defense of 2000 or lower, which your monster you just placed down would have, I believe."  
  
"That means." Holly began as she discarded her Empress Judge.  
  
"Your field is defenseless," Ivan said, "allowing me to attack your Life Points directly with my Launcher Spider, bringing your Life Points down to zero. I win the duel. Imagine, I just won this duel with only two turns."  
  
"I can't believe it," Holly said. "I lost."  
  
"If you call yourself and expert at dueling and you've lost to me in two turns, I should be able to win this competition easily," Ivan said, and he walked off.  
  
"That was a cheap move," Ken said.  
  
"I saw him do moves like that on TV," Holly said. "He has three Launcher Spiders, and some other good monsters. And his deck consists of great magic cards. Too bad he's with the forces of evil, though." Holly then walked off.  
  
Ken toured the rest of the places in the convention center, like the card trading areas and the shops, until there were two minutes left until the tournament started.  
  
"Hey." Ken turned around and saw Stefan. "Guess what? I just saw the battle chart for the tournament. I'm going to be in the first duel. You're going to be in the ninth, which will take place tomorrow."  
  
"That's cool," Ken said. "It'll give me chance to check out the competition." The boys found two chairs to sit in and after short moment, everybody was in their seats and the announcer went up to the microphone.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Duel Monsters Portland City Tournament!" he said. "We have gathered 32 duelists here in our tournament and each of them will compete for the grand prize of $5,000 and the one-of- kind, ultra-rare Golden Eyes Supreme Dragon card." We will hold eight duels each day for the rest of this week, and on Thursday there will be only 7 duels we will have plenty of action as we hold Round 3, the semi-finals, and the finals;" Round 1 will consist of sixteen duels, eight of them being held tonight! So lets get the action started!"  
  
The crowd cheered loudly and Stefan told Ken, "I'm going to start first, so wish me luck."  
  
"Of course," Ken said.  
  
"Now," the announcer continued, "We will hold the first duel of our tournament. First we have a rookie duelist, Stefan Carson!" The crowd cheered as Stefan stood up and walked his way up the one of the ends of the dueling arena. When the crowd stopped the announcer continued, "Next we have a duelists in his third year of the tournament, Clyde Wilson!" And the crowd cheered as a tall boy with black hair and glasses made his way up the opposite side of the field. "Now lets get this duel started! Each duelist begins with 2000 Life Points; first duelist to wipe out all their opponents Life Points wins the duel! We will the Stefan Carson the rookie go first! Lets begin.  
  
The boy each drew five cards and then Stefan drew his sixth. From the audience, Ken couldn't see which card Stefan was holding so all he could do was observe this duel.  
  
"I'll place one card face down on the Magic and Trap Card Zone and I'll summons a monster facedown in defense mode," Stefan said. "Your move."  
  
Clyde drew card and said, "I'll summon the Battle Ox, the mighty monster with 1700 attack!" He placed his card done, and automatically a large hologram of the Battle Ox warrior appeared on Clyde's end of the field. "And I'll attack!"  
  
"And I'll activate my trap!" Stefan said, picking up and revealing his facedown trap card. "It's the Negate Attack, and I can ignore any attack that's thrown at me!" A small part of the audience cheered for Stefan. Figures. It was his first tournament duel and he didn't have that many fans.  
  
"Uh.your turn," Clyde said, surprised a rookie like Stefan had a good card like Negate Attack.  
  
Stefan drew a card and placed down. ".My own Battle Ox."  
  
"This is a twist," the announcer said. "Stefan has sent out his own Battle Ox. But the strength of these two monsters is equal. Is this the end of Stefan's turn.  
  
"I'll equip my Battle Ox with the Invigoration magic card," Stefan said. "Raising his attack to 2100! And I'll attack!" The arena showed Stefan's Battle Ox charging at Clyde's and taking a swing with its sword, destroy the opponent. "That will end my turn and you would lose 400 Life Points!" The little group of Stefan's fans turned into a big group as many cheers began.  
  
Clyde couldn't believe he was fazed by a rookie. And he thought his next draw would do him good, but he had nothing. So all he did was place a monster facedown in defense mode. "Your move."  
  
Stefan drew a card that was none other than one of his favorites, Ookazi. He used it right away. "That drops your Life Points down to 800 and I will attack your facedown monster with my Battle Ox." The holograms showed the Battle Ox successfully destroying the monster in defense.  
  
Clyde definitely looked irritated. He drew a card and a dangerous smile spread across his face. "I summon the Skull Knight!" He placed a powerful monster (ATK/2650 DEF/2250) in attack mode. "Attack!" The Skull Knight destroyed Stefan's Battle Ox and brought Stefan's Life Points to 1550. "Your turn."  
  
Stefan drew a card and a proud smile spread across his face. "I summon the Kazejin!" Stefan placed a monster (ATK 2400 DEF/2200) in attack mode."  
  
"My Skull Knight will be able to blow that monster away," Clyde said. "He is, after all, the strongest monster in my deck."  
  
"You don't know what you're talking about," Stefan said. "My Kazejin has a one-time, but great effect where I can reduce my opponent's monster's Attack Points down to zero, and then I attack! And with an attack of 2400, I win the duel!"  
  
Bursts of cheers exploded from Stefan's fans!  
  
"Stefan wins the duel!" the announcer exclaimed. "I think we'll be seeing a lot more of this rookie in the tournament!"  
  
After the duel, Stefan rejoined with Ken and they sat down in their seats. "Nice duel," Ken said.  
  
"One of my best," Stefan bragged. The tournament continued with five more duels which Ken and Stefan watched and enjoyed them.  
  
"That was some duel!" the announcer said at the end of the third duel. "Okay, now for our final duel of the evening we will have Ivan Griffin, a Californian champion duelist, against, Drake Romero, last year's tournament MVP. Ken and Stefan prepared to watch this duel with great interest. "And since Ivan is new around here, he will get the first move!"  
  
Both duelists came up to the arena and drew five cards. When Ivan drew his sixth, he immediately summoned his Launcher Spider (ATK 2200 DEF/2500) in attack mode.  
  
Drake drew a card and placed a monster in defense mode, ending his turn.  
  
Ivan drew a card and said, "I use the Raigeki magic card, which wipes out all the monsters on your field. Drake's monster that was in defense mode disappeared. "And now, my Launcher Spider will attack your Life Points directly and dropping them to zero leaving me victory.  
  
"Amazing, ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer said. "I've heard rumors that Ivan ends his duels, quickly, and now I know why!" The audience was in silence. Drake looked like the Launcher Spider has swung one of its legs right in front of his face. "That concludes day one of our tournament. Come by tomorrow where we will start of the evening with a rookie, Ken Richter, against Jenny Wood, one of last year's semi-finalists!"  
  
When Ken got home that night, his dad asked him, "So, did you win?"  
  
"Nah, but Stefan did," Ken replied. "My first duel starts right away tomorrow."  
  
"Well, we got new neighbors," Mr. Richter said. "They're the Griffins, and they have a boy your age. I think his name is Ivan."  
  
"What?!" Ken demanded. "Ivan?"  
  
"Yeah, I think so.why?" Mr. Richter asked.  
  
"He was in the tournament," Ken answered. "He acted like he was some big shot. But all he does is cheap moves."  
  
"Well I think if you get to know him better, he might be a good guy," Mr. Richter said.  
  
"Sure," Ken said sarcastically, and he walked off toward his room. 


	3. Pendant's Voice

CHAPTER 3: PENDANT'S VOICE  
  
The following day at school, Ken and Stefan were just discussing the tournament on the courtyard before the first bell rang. Then the unexpected appeared. Ivan.  
  
"So, your first duel is tonight, right?" he asked.  
  
"Why would you care?" Ken asked. "You'll probably find a photo op somewhere."  
  
"We might have gotten off on the wrong start," Ivan said.  
  
"Yeah, I guess," Ken said, and they shook hands.  
  
"Good luck on tonight's duel," Ivan said. "In fact..." He reached for his pocket and pulled out a card, giving it to Ken. "Sword of The Deep-Seated. It'll power up any monster's attack and defense by 500 points." And he walked off.  
  
"Umm.thanks," Ken said. He put it away in his backpack.  
  
"So tonight's your big night, huh?" Stefan said.  
  
"My first tournament duel," Ken said proudly.  
  
"You nervous?"  
  
"Why should I be? I'm just dueling for fun."  
  
"Yeah, of course," Stefan said sarcastically. "I'll bet by the time it's your turn to duel, your stomach will be full of butterflies."  
  
Ken didn't take the bet and he was glad. The hours seemed to pass by quickly and he was already up on the arena, shuffling his deck. He was more than nervous. He wondered how Stefan made it past his first duel.  
  
"And on the other side of the field," the announcer said, "one of last year's proud semi-finalists, Jenny Wood!"  
  
A really pretty girl with long, shining brown hair came up to the arena and smiled at Ken. All he could do was smile back. He was so not ready for this duel.  
  
"Rookies go first," the announcer said.  
  
Ken looked at the hand he'd drawn. He had good old Flame Cerebrus (ATK 2100 DEF/1800) in it. And that's the monster he put down. "I summon the Flame Cerebrus!"  
  
Jenny smiled and drew a card and placed it in attack position. It was the Red Eyes Black Dragon (ATK 2400 DEF/2000.) And she put a magic card on top of it. "I summon the Red Eyes Black Dragon and I'll equip it with the Sword of Dark Destruction, raising its attack points to 2800. And I'll attack, destroying your Flame Cerebrus and dropping your Life Points down to 1300!"  
  
"Oooh, Jenny has made a nice dent in Ken's Life Points!" the announcer said.  
  
The Flame Cerebrus was gone. Ken was nervous. He drew the Sword of the Deep- Seated, but he figured he should save it for later. All he had to put down now is a Steel Scorpion in defense mode. "I'll put this card in defense," he said. "Your move."  
  
"Red Eyes Black Dragon, attack!" Jenny said, and the Steel Scorpion was gone. The next few turns consisted of Ken putting down defense monsters, and Jenny annihilating every one of them with her Red Eyes Black Dragon. And then a miracle happened.  
  
Ken drew his strongest monster, the Blue Eyes White Dragon (ATK 3000, DEF 2500). He looked up at Jenny like Kaiba would look at him. He even did Kaiba's tone of voice. "Your Red Eyes Black Dragon.it's good. I believe it's your prized monster, right?"  
  
"Yes, took me a while to get it," Jenny answered.  
  
"Well, it's no match for my next card!" Ken said. "I summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon!" The crowd gasped as the hologram of the Blue Eyes appeared.  
  
"This is amazing!" the announcer said. Ken Richter, our rookie, seems to be the owner of one of the world's four Blue Eyes White Dragons! What a highlight of the evening!" Ken could see Ivan in the audience, and even he was stunned.  
  
"And I'm not finished," Ken said. "I will equip my Blue Eyes White Dragon with the Sword of The Deep-Seated, which will raise his attack points to 3500!" Ken saw Ivan smiling, in the audience. "And now I'll attack, destroying your Red Eyes and bringing your Life Points down to 1200!" Jenny did not expect this to happen. Ken was proud of his move.  
  
GOOD JOB.  
  
Ken flinched. He heard something in his mind. Like a voice. And it sounded really familiar. It was too weird. He figured it might have been loud shout from a fan or something. He had to get on with the duel.  
  
Jenny drew from her hand. Ken knew that having her prized monster be wiped out in the duel so early must have been tough. For the next few turns she kept putting in defense monsters. The audience got bored. Until..  
  
Ken drew a Stop Defense, and used it to turn Jenny's current defense monster face-up, revealing it to be the Baby Dragon (ATK 1200 DEF/700.)  
  
"Blue Eyes White Dragon, attack the Baby Dragon!" Ken said. The Baby Dragon was destroyed and Jenny's Life Points dropped to zero. "You lose."  
  
"And the rookie Ken Richter defeats Jenny Woods!" the announcer said. "The fans cheered."  
  
After the duel, Ken sat down next to Stefan and enjoyed the rest of the duels. He was proud he survived the first round. But there was far too much pressure. So much for fun.  
  
The eighth and final duel of the evening included Holly Smith, the girl who dueled Ivan the previous night. She won the duel with Empress Judge, and a few magic cards equipped to her.  
  
As the tournament ended for that night, Ken and Stefan were on their way out when Ken heard it inside his head again. The voice.  
  
GO TO THE BACK OF THE CONVENTION CENTER. COME ALONE.  
  
And Ken was insane. He actual wanted to go. He needed to find out what it was. "Umm.I got to bathroom," Ken said. "I'll be right back."  
  
And he went into the back lot of the building. He saw someone waiting. It was Ivan. But Ivan's eyes were glowing red. "Hello, Ken."  
  
"What's going on? Did you send those voices?" It had to be. Ken figured it out. The voices he heard did sound like Ivan's.  
  
YES. IT WAS ME.  
  
"What's going on? What do you want?" Ken was completely freaked out.  
  
I WANT YOUR PENDANT. Ivan reached for inside his shirt and pulled out a necklace with a golden pendant. I KNOW YOU HAVE ONE.  
  
Now Ken was definitely freaked. He did have a pendant. His mother gave it to him before she passed away. Then, he did the bravest thing he could do in a situation like this. "I can't. My mother gave it to me."  
  
Then Ivan used his actual voice to speak. But it sounded like a cartoon dragon's voice. It could never belong to a human. "Understandable. Then I'll have to win it from you. You see, I can create deals in this realm with duels. If I win, I get what I want. I don't even need the other person's permission to create a deal."  
  
Ken didn't understand. "What kind of deal are you going to make?"  
  
"First I must tell a story. In ancient Egyp. that's where Duel Monster originated from. They were not cards back then, no. Pharaohs used real monsters and had battles. They called them Shadow Games But the magic of the Shadow Games was sealed away. But the Egyptians created a card game to remember the games by. Centuries later, near the end of the magic age, 7 Egyptians locked their souls away into 7 pendants. They knew a location of a place where the Shadow Games could be released. But in order for them to return, the 7 Lost Pendants must all be brought together and one place and activated. I am Makaro, the spirit of one of the Egyptians. Because this Ivan had evil in him, he was able to activate the pendant he wore and release my spirit. And I can take control of him at certain times. But he knows what's happening. And sometimes he use my powers. I am on a quest to release all of us into this realm. But I need your pendant!"  
  
"You.can't.have it," Ken managed to say.  
  
"Wrong," the "spirit" Makaro said. "We will hold a duel. If I win, I get your pendant. "If I lose, my spirit will not bother Ivan for the remainder of the tournament and you keep your pendant. You have no choice. But first.."  
  
The ground, sky and buildings disappeared. The entire area was surrounded by black, with small white and purple stripes. Like some sort of vortex.  
  
"Welcome to the Shadow Realm," Makaro/Ivan said. "This is the dimension where the ancient pharaohs held the Shadow Games. But don't worry, I will bring us back after I win." Then a table with two chairs appeared. Obviously meant for the duel. "Come sit. Shuffle your deck and let's begin."  
  
Ken and Makaro/Ivan sat, shuffled their decks, and the duel began.  
  
* * * In the front lot of the convention center.  
  
Stefan looked around. "Where is he.?"  
  
".supreme dragon."  
  
Stefan turned around and saw the announcer of the tournament talking to a police officer. "We checked the vault where we kept that rare card. Somebody has stolen the card."  
  
"We'll look into the matter," the police officer said. "What the.the building's on fire!" Stefan quickly looked back at the convention center and saw inside the windows that the whole place was on fire.  
  
He panicked. Ken was still in there! Stefan ran toward the back of the building. He knew that the police officer would stop him from going into through the front. But nobody would notice him sneaking toward the back. And besides, the bathrooms were near the back anyway. If Stefan could get to Ken in time, he could warn him that the inside of the-  
  
"Wait!"  
  
Stefan turned and saw a teenage girl that was in the final duel of the evening.  
  
"I'm Holly," she said. "Where are you going, the whole building's on fire."  
  
"My friend Ken is still in there," Stefan said. "I'm not leaving him!" Stefan continued running and as he went around the final corner to the back lot of the building he stopped dead. There was a whole in the air. Like a black vortex. "What the heck is that?"  
  
As Holly arrived she received the same reaction Stefan did. "What is that?!" But there was no time to discuss in because the vortex blew them both in.  
  
* * * Back at the Shadow Realm.  
  
The two duelists had barely drawn their first five cards when the whole background of the Shadow Realm began to fade away.  
  
"No!" Ivan/Makaro said. "Someone is attempting to enter the Shadow Realm! It's causing a rip in the time/space continuum!"  
  
Ken watched as Stefan and the Holly girl who had dueled Ivan appeared. But the Shadow Realm didn't go away. They watched as Ivan stopped panicking and stopped moving. He was completely frozen.  
  
"Okay, somebody please tell me what exactly is going on here," Holly said.  
  
"I wouldn't mind having that question answered as well," Stefan said.  
  
Ken explained everything to them starting with the weird voice he started hearing, and all the way to the story about the 7 Pendants.  
  
Stefan said, "And what's going to happen n-"  
  
Just then, Ken, Stefan, and Holly were scared to death as Ivan let out a terrible scream. "AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"  
  
What happened next was unexplainable. First there was one Ivan, then there were two. It was like Ivan split into two bodies. But they were different. One had the normal appearance of Ivan, the blonde hair and the gothic black clothes. But the other Ivan had silver hair and the eyes were actually red! And the second Ivan was the only one wearing the golden pendant.  
  
The second Ivan let out an evil grin. "How are you guys doing in the Shadow Realm?"  
  
All three of them didn't answer because they all knew the horrible truth. The second Ivan wasn't real at all. The spirit Makaro had split from Ivan's body and created its own. "You're Makaro," Ken said.  
  
"Doesn't take a genius to figure that out," Makaro said.  
  
"What have I done.?" the real Ivan said. "When I first found that pendant, I knew it was bad news. But I used its powers anyway."  
  
"Correct," Makaro said. "And now I possess every single on of those powers. But the reason I did this is because I needed only one. Only one power that I could only use if I had my own body with full control. The power of time. We are here in the Shadow Realm, away from the other plane you four live in. But now, I will forward the time in your plane by thirty years, and I will put myself in the time-forward as well. For, during those forty years, I will embark on a journey and collect all seven pendants and bring back the Shadow Games to earth. The games will still be cards. But I will make it so that real monsters can be summoned from those cards." Makaro lifted his finger and pointed to a random spot in the Shadow Realm and then a white portal appeared. "This will return you to your world, but thirty years ahead of your time." And then Makaro disappeared into thin air.  
  
"I can't believe this," Ivan said, shamefully facing the others. "I never meant for this to happen. I'm so sorry."  
  
"Wait a second," Ken said. "What about my pendant? He hasn't taken it. He can't release the Shadow Games without all seven on them.  
  
"You don't understand," Ivan said. "He already has your pendant. As he transported you to the Shadow Realm, he switched your pendant with a fake one, for fear that he might lose the duel."  
  
"So what now?" Stefan asked. "Should we just on into the portal? Should we just enter a world thirty years ahead of how it's supposed to be?"  
  
"Wait!" Holly said. "I think that this is a crazy idea, but it just might work!"  
  
"What?" all three boys asked.  
  
"Ivan said that from every Duel Monsters card the monster itself can be summoned. So as soon as we return to the earth, every monster in our deck will be able to work like that."  
  
"So what's your point?" Ken asked.  
  
"Watch," Holly said. She pulled out her deck and searched from it until she found a Time Wizard. She walked over towards the portal, holding the Time Wizard, and stuck her hand into it. Then she pulled it out.  
  
"What are you doing?" Stefan asked.  
  
"Okay, let's see," Holly said, raising her hand with the card in the air. "I summon the Time Wizard!" The card in Holly's hand glowed and an actual Time Wizard appeared right in front of her.  
  
"You're able to summon an actual Time Wizard, but how will that help?" Ken asked.  
  
"Here it goes," Holly said. "Time Wizard, I want you to adjust that portal so that it will transport us to the same destination, but on the date October, 1st, 2002."  
  
"Can he do that?" Ivan asked.  
  
"Let's see," Holly said. The Time Wizard aimed his staff at the portal and shot out a bright blue beam. He then disappeared. "I think he did it."  
  
"Do we go in now?" Ken asked.  
  
"Yes, we do," Ivan said. The four duelists each walked into the white portal.  
  
Immediately Holly, Ivan, Stefan, and Ken appeared right behind the burning convention center. "We're back," Ken said.  
  
"But we've got work to do," Ivan said. "Starting right now, Makaro has begun to collect all seven pendants."  
  
"And we've got to stop him," Holly said.  
  
"But what if he sends us to the Shadow Realm again and messes with time once more?" Ken asked.  
  
"I searched Makaro's memory and knowledge when were one," Ivan said. "Performing an act such as going into the Shadow Realm and doing a thirty- year time-forward with even two pendants will drain a few month's power from them. "They won't work now. And we've got to use this period of time to stop him."  
  
"But where do we start?" Stefan asked.  
  
"There is indeed another person with one of the 7 Pendants here in this city."  
  
Not that many people had left the scene of the fire. When the fire department came, everyone stepped back, but continued watching. When the fire was gone, the announcer told all duelists to gather around.  
  
"We're sorry," the announcer said. "But due to this fire, the Duel Monsters Portland City tournament will be postponed." The crowd sank into depression. "We have all your information, so you will receive a letter in the mail regarding when and where the remainder of the tournament will take place."  
  
"Lets meet here tomorrow at five," Holly said. "And we'll go after Makaro."  
  
"Listen," Ivan said. "Makaro isn't an everyday person. He's not going to be patient. He's probably going after the third pendant right now. And once he gets it, that will be all he'll need to use the power and get the other four pendants with little effort. I say we go get him now! If one pendants destroyed, he won't be able to bring all seven together."  
  
"So where do we find the person with the next pendant?" Ken asked.  
  
"That's not what we're going to be doing," Ivan said. "We're going to go after Makaro himself, and we'll destroy the two pendants that he already has."  
  
"Can we only destroy yours?" Ken asked. "Mine was a gift from my mother."  
  
"Too late," a voice behind them said. They turned around and saw him. Makaro.  
  
"Oh no." Stefan said.  
  
"That's right," Makaro said. He reached down into his shirt and pulled out three pendants."  
  
"I'll get you." Ivan said and ran and dived right toward Makaro. Ivan grabbed Makaro by his shirt and slammed him into the ground.  
  
"What do you think you're doing?!" Makaro yelled.  
  
Through little effort, Ivan managed to get all three of the pendants away from Makaro. "Here," Ivan said, throwing Ken's pendant to him. Then he turned and faced Makaro. "There's a little rule in life I've always hated."  
  
"Hand them back to me!" Makaro yelled.  
  
Ivan aimed his own pendant at Makaro and in a flash of light, Makaro was absorbed into it. Ivan quick ran over to a nearby dumpster and threw both of the pendants in there.  
  
"We should have just destroyed them," Ken said.  
  
"They can't be," Ivan said. "They're enchanted to never break."  
  
"Weird," Stefan said.  
  
"Well, I think we should all head home," Ivan said.  
  
As Ken left he though that was too easy.  
  
* * * Esplin Association Headquarters.  
  
Mr. Esplin slammed his fists onto his desk. "Now they're going to expect me to pay for that damn convention center. And if they don't, they're going to sue me! This bill will probably take a twentieth of my entire company! I'm going to find out who put that place on fire, and when I do I'm going to force them into paying!"  
  
Mr. Esplin looked through his private network and looked through the network tapes of the surveillance cameras. He looked through a few parts of the building and then the tape of the back lot of the convention center. Soon he saw two boys standing there and talking. He recognized one of them, which was Ivan Griffin, the favorite to win the tournament. He watched and watched until he understood what was happening. He then looked at another tape of the front lot in the convention center. The end of the tape showed Ivan throwing two golden pendants into a dumpster. Mr. Esplin smiled. "Interesting." 


	4. New Beginnings

CHAPTER 4: NEW BEGINNINGS  
  
"I told you," Mr. Esplin said to a businessman who was a close friend of his. "There simply is no time to continue the tournament. I need to save the money up for something else." The two of them were in Mr. Esplin's office.  
  
"But sir -" the businessman began, but was interrupted as Mr. Esplin's phone rang.  
  
"Excuse me," Mr. Esplin said, picking up the phone. "Hello? Oh, Mr. Pegasus! How are you, sir? Yes - well, the convention center burned down and we had to cancel it. No - well, we haven't had the time to find a place to continue - What? But - yes, sir. I understand. Good day to you too." Mr. Esplin hung up.  
  
"What did Mr. Pegasus say?" the businessman asked.  
  
"He's relieving the Esplin Association of all Duel Monsters matters," Mr. Esplin said.  
  
"Oh," the businessman said. "Well, call me sometime. Have a good day." The businessman left. Mr. Esplin knew what the businessman thought. That the Esplin Association was falling apart and that he would have to cancel his partnerships to it.  
  
"One more bad thing that's happened today," Mr. Esplin said to himself. "But I don't understand. I sent two men to look for those pendants in the dumpster, but they couldn't find anything. It's like they just disappeared." He thought for a moment and then the thought struck. "They couldn't have just.gone back to the kids?"  
  
* * * Portland Middle School, the day after the Makaro events.  
  
"It's over," Ivan said. "There won't be a tournament."  
  
"Why would you think that?" Ken asked.  
  
"The Esplin Association is small," Ken said. Really, really small. It will take a lot of money to pay for a building as big as that convention center.  
  
"Well, it wasn't that big of a tournament anyway," Stefan said. "Going to a tournament like the one at Duelist Kingdom, now that'd be cool."  
  
"Or the Duel Monsters American Games," Ivan said.  
  
"What's that?" Stefan and Ken asked.  
  
"Well, it's a private tournament held in Hawaii where expert duelists come and form teams competing for victory," Ivan said.  
  
"Expert duelists?" Ken said. "As in Holly, you, and I?"  
  
"Yeah, basically," Ivan said.  
  
Before Stefan could completely get thrown out of the conversation he said," Oh, I almost forgot to tell you guys. Just before the building burned down, the Golden Eyes card was stolen."  
  
"Obviously," Ivan said. "There are many who would do vicious things to get it."  
  
Ken couldn't help but say, "Like Seto Kaiba."  
  
Ivan glared at Ken, trying to hide his shock, "You know?"  
  
"That he sent you here? Yes."  
  
"We hacked into Seto's journal," Stefan explained. "We knew he was sending someone to claim the Golden Eyes Supreme Dragon for him, but we didn't know who."  
  
"And when I saw you giving me that grin on the first night of the tournament, I could tell you were that guy," Ken said.  
  
"Uh.well.yeah," Ivan said nervously.  
  
"So why'd you do it?" Ken asked, in a very serious tone of voice.  
  
This got Ivan motivated. "Just stay out of my business." He walked away mad.  
  
"Guess it takes a while for people to change," Stefan said.  
  
After school, Ivan went to a nearby card shop and bought a pack of Duel Monsters cards.  
  
"Have a nice day," the old man at the counter who runs the store said.  
  
"Thanks," Ivan said and he left the store. When he got outside, he saw three boys near the stores who looked like street punks.  
  
"I'm serious," the tallest one said. "I just came out five minutes ago and I saw it. The old geezer must have made a big mess-up because I saw a Red Eyes Black Dragon in there for only a quarter."  
  
"Then lets go get it," the shortest boy said with a squeaky voice. They went into the store.  
  
"Hmm.," Ivan said and he followed them.  
  
When he got into the store, he saw the three boys talking to the owner over a counter with single cards. "We'll take that Red Eyes Black Dragon," the tall one said, smiling.  
  
The old man took the card out of the counter and looked at it. "That'll be 25 cents." The tall boy gave the old man a quarter and he got the card in exchange. The boys left the store and Ivan followed them out.  
  
"Hey!" Ivan said to the boys and they turned around and faced him. "You know you just ripped that old man off!"  
  
"So?" the tall boy said and Ivan suddenly recognized him.  
  
"Drake Romero?" Ivan said. "The guy I dueled in the tournament?"  
  
"Hello Ivan," Drake said, smiling. "How's life for an expert?"  
  
"Busy," Ivan said. "Now I want you to go in there and tell the man that he put up the wrong price for that card."  
  
"You can't tell us what to do," Drake said. "We put all cards together in one deck and duel as one."  
  
"We are the Skull Hunters Gang!" they all said together.  
  
Ivan laughed and said, "Do you how pathetic that is?"  
  
"I'd watch it if I were you," Drake said. "You may be good with cards, but it doesn't look like you're good with fists."  
  
"They lets play my way, then!" Ivan said. "A duel."  
  
Drake checked his watch. "Great idea, but we'll have to postpone it until some other time. We've got another duel to get to. But when we meet, I'll be sure to play nice."  
  
"When it comes to duels, playing nice will get you nowhere!" Ivan said.  
  
"Good," Drake said. "When we duel, winner gets possession of the Red Eyes." He grinned. "Have a nice day." He and the two other boys walked away.  
  
"I will," Ivan said. "And I'll have an even better one when I humiliate you a second time."  
  
* * * Stefan's house, after school.  
  
"I'm feeling pretty down," Stefan said.  
  
"Why?" Ken asked, surfing the Internet on Stefan's computer.  
  
"You heard what Ivan said," Stefan answered. "There isn't a likely chance that the city tournament is going to continue, and I'm not an expert-title duelist, so I can't go compete in those Duel Monsters American Games."  
  
"Hey, did Ivan and I say we were going?" Ken asked.  
  
"Hey, look!" Stefan said, rushing over to the window. "It's Ivan!" Ken and Stefan looked out the window and saw Ivan talking to three men, two of them the tall, quiet type wearing suits and expensive sunglasses, and the third a man who seemed really happy, and was talking to Ivan. "Who are they?"  
  
The two boys ran outside toward Ivan and the three men. When they got there, the talking man said, "Are these the boys who will be on your team?"  
  
"Yeah, that's them," Ivan said.  
  
"What's going on?" Ken asked.  
  
"Well, Ivan has been invited to the Duel Monsters American Games," the man said. "I'm Mr. Presley, one of the scouts for the competition. And Ivan has been chosen to create and lead his own team in the competition." He turned to Ivan. "Are these the boys who are going to be competing with you?"  
  
"Yeah, that's them," Ivan said, grinning.  
  
"Do you boys accept the invitation?" Mr. Presley asked.  
  
"Yeah, if it's okay with our parents," Ken said.  
  
"Yeah," Stefan said. "My dad's telling me as soon as I get invited to a tournament in a great place, to accept it."  
  
"Yeah, of course," Ivan said.  
  
"Great!" Mr. Presley said. "Now, the tournament will take place on the weekend of the 19th, so we'll be leaving the day before, and we should get you back on Monday afternoon."  
  
"This is going to be great," Stefan said.  
  
"Yes, but there is one more important matter you must discuss," Mr. Presley said. "You must choose a fourth team member. I recommend someone you saw at the city tournament. The leader of your team, the one who has the greatest dueling history, Ivan, gets to make the decision."  
  
"Umm.let's see," Ivan said, stalling while having already made up his mind. "Holly Smith. She was in the city tournament."  
  
"Yeah, she's a good duelist," Ken said.  
  
"Okay, then!" Mr. Presley said. "We'll contact her. Meanwhile, you three make up a team name, then. Have a nice day!" Mr. Presley and the other two men walked away.  
  
"Um.Ivan?" Ken said. "Sorry about criticizing you about working for Kaiba."  
  
"Yeah, that's alright," Ivan said. "Anyway, you guys come up with a team name. Try not to make it too corny. And I'll see you later."  
  
"Alright," Stefan said. "See you later." Then he turned to Ken and mocked, "Did I say we were going?"  
  
* * * Portland Central Park, one week later.  
  
"Gaia, attack!" Drake said. He won the duel. "That brings your Life Points to zero! You're just not good enough for me."  
  
"I can't believe I lost," the boy said. "You got crushed in the tournament and I did the crushing on my opponent."  
  
"Things change," Drake said. Drake's opponent ran away. "Loser."  
  
"I believe we have some unfinished business."  
  
Drake turned around and saw Ivan Griffin standing there with his deck in his hand. "A duel?" Drake asked. "Lets do it."  
  
In the next minute, they were both sitting down on one of the park tables, shuffling their decks. "If I win, you go back there to that card store and tell the old man that he made mistake putting up the price on the Red Eyes Black Dragon," Ivan said.  
  
"If you win, I'll just give it to you," Drake said. "And you do whatever you want with it. But if I win.I get one of your Launcher Spiders."  
  
"Deal," Ivan said. He drew five cards into his hand, as did Drake.  
  
"You go first," Drake said. Ivan drew a card and looked at his hand. He had drawn a Launcher Spider (ATK 2200 DEF/2500 on his first turn. Lucky draw. The rest were weak monster he normally used for stalling. No magic or trap cards. "I summon the Launcher Spider!" He placed the Launcher Spider card face-up in attack mode.  
  
Drake laughed. "That's the best you can do?"  
  
"I doubt you'll send out anything stronger!" Ivan said.  
  
Drake had a violent smile on his face. It almost looked pathetic. "First, I'll place this card face-down." He placed a face-down card in his magic/trap card zone. "Then, I summon, in attack mode, the Golden Eyes Supreme Dragon!" He placed down the Golden Eyes monster, with an indestructible attack of 3800 and defense of 2800.  
  
"You thief!" Ivan exclaimed. "You're the one who stole the card! You are the most dishonorable duelist there ever was!"  
  
"And soon to be the best," Drake said. "Golden Eyes Supreme Dragon attacks and destroys your Launcher Spider, bringing your Life Points down to 700!"  
  
"I can't believe you!" Ivan said. "How could you do something like this? As far as I know, this duel is over."  
  
"You're not going to quit," Drake said, grinning evilly. "If you do, you can't get that Red Eyes."  
  
"I can't believe I'm going to play by your rules," Ivan said. He drew a card. Another Launcher Spider. I wish I had some magic cards to boost the Launcher Spider's defense. Then I could survive Ivan thought. He picked a random monster and placed it in face-down defense position. "I'll put his monster face-down in defense," Ivan said.  
  
"That activates my trap!" Drake said. He revealed his face-down card to be the Defense Paralysis. "This will flip all your monsters into attack mode. And the monster you just faced can't be super-strong. So my Golden Eyes will blow it away and you lose!"  
  
Ivan couldn't speak. With the exception of when he was a beginner duelist, Ivan had never lost a duel.  
  
"You say I'm not honorable," Drake asked. "Then listen to this: Even though I won, I don't want your Launcher Spider. Keep that crummy monster in your deck." Drake left.  
  
Ivan just stood there, looking at the ground. This loss was the worst thing that ever happened to him. He closed his eyes. When he opened them, he saw it. His pendant. He didn't even take a moment to think. He put it around his deck. "I need you once more." * * * Friday, October 18th (8 days later) at the Portland Airport.  
  
Holly had agreed to join Ivan, Stefan, and Ivan at the American Games. Their team name was the Spirit Breakers (Stefan thought of it) and they had boarded their flight that was completely paid by the company that hosted the competition. The best part was they got to sit in first class.  
  
"I can't believe we're actually going," Stefan said. "I mean, one week ago Ivan told us about this competition, and now, here we are!"  
  
"Yeah, lets win this one," Ivan said. He kept his pendant away from view. He hadn't told any of the others about his duel with Drake.  
  
"I just want to say I'm so thankful that you guys let me come along," Holly said.  
  
"That's the 23rd time you said that," Ken said, keeping count. "And besides, we need you on our team."  
  
"Yeah, now we've got a total of 4 expert duelists!" Stefan said.  
  
"Oh really?" Ken said. "And who's the fourth one?" Everyone laughed.  
  
Soon the flight took off and they were flying over the Pacific Ocean.  
  
Honolulu, Hawaii. Paradise. And a group of duelists called the Spirit Breakers were now there. At the airport in Honolulu, a man in an expensive held a sign that said: Duelists for Duel Monsters American Games.  
  
"That's us!" Stefan said, as the group ran toward the man.  
  
"Welcome to Hawaii," the man said. "You would be the Spirit Breakers, correct?"  
  
"Yep, that's us," Ken said.  
  
"Okay," the man said. "Follow me toward your limo."  
  
"Follow me toward your limo." Ken thought. Sweet.  
  
During the ride in the limo, the Spirit Breakers enjoyed themselves by playing video games.  
  
"You lose," Holly said. "The reason my name can't be Kit Kat is because I'll never give you a break."  
  
"Whatever," Ivan said, putting down his controller. "My thing is dueling, not video games."  
  
When the limo arrived at the hotel and the kids got out, they saw other duelists gathered outside.  
  
"This must be where all the duelists are staying," Holly said.  
  
"Well, lets meet some of these hotshots," Ivan said.  
  
"Tomorrow," Stefan said. "I forgot how these time zone things work, but I'm tired."  
  
"Here it's 6 o'clock," Ken said. "Back home it's 7.  
  
"Oh," Stefan said. "Then I'm as fresh as a Man-Eating Plant."  
  
But Ivan had already walked off toward a trio of duelists.  
  
"Well, well, look who it is," one of the boys in the team said. He had hair dyed silver and wore silver clothes that resembled Ivan's, besides the color. He also had disturbingly large eyes. He was a bit taller than Ivan; probably Holly's age. "Ivan Griffin."  
  
"Nice to see you, Eric," Ivan said. "I'm surprised you're here. This are amazing duelists and you can barely beat me."  
  
"I've improved," Eric said. "And you won't believe what my cousin up in Portland sent me for the tournament." He pulled a card out of his left pocket that Ivan recognized at once.  
  
"The Golden Eyes Supreme Dragon?!" Stefan said, running over along with Holly and Ken.  
  
"Which cousin would that be?" Ken asked, in a strict voice, knowing that when he finds out he could tell the Esplin Organization who committed the crime of stealing that card.  
  
"Drake," Eric said.  
  
It suddenly hit Ivan! Eric's last name is Romero! He thought. But he said nothing.  
  
"In fact, he's here dueling on my team," Eric said. "He's just gone up to his room."  
  
"I've had enough of this," Ivan said. "See you in the tournament." And the Spirit Breakers walked off.  
  
Holly got her own room in the hotel while the three boys shared a larger room with three beds.  
  
"Who was this Eric guy?" Holly asked. They all met at the guys room.  
  
"He was my rival back in California," Ivan said. "Not to brag, but it was clear that I was better than him. But he just couldn't face the facts."  
  
"And now he'll want revenge," Ken said.  
  
"Forget about that," Stefan said. "We've got to tell the Esplin Organization that Drake-"  
  
"Let it go," Ivan said. "Who cares?"  
  
"The Golden Eyes is a terribly powerful card," Holly said. "You don't seem surprise at all that he has it. Wait! Did you already know?"  
  
"Yes," Ivan said firmly.  
  
"Why didn't you tell any of us?" Ken demanded.  
  
"Not important," Ivan said.  
  
"Ivan!" Holly exclaimed. "As captain of this team, you've got to stop keeping secrets from us!"  
  
Ivan didn't say anything.  
  
"Can we count on you?" Ken asked.  
  
"Yes," Ivan said.  
  
"Is there anything else we should know?" Holly asked.  
  
Ivan quickly thought about it. His loss against Drake. If they found out, they'd understand. The Pendant. How he was planning to use it again. They'd be enraged if they found out.  
  
"No," Ivan said. "There's nothing else." 


	5. First Move

CHAPTER 5: FIRST MOVE  
  
Ivan was outside the hotel sitting at the beach at night. But not even the beautiful ocean view could cure Ivan's guilty conscience.  
  
"What the heck am I doing?" Ivan said, slowly taking off his pendant. He gazed into it. "This thing.it's evil. I'm not sure if I'm proud to say it resembles me, but I think it's the truth. What the?!"  
  
The pendant was glowing red. Suddenly everything turned black. Ivan couldn't see a thing.  
  
GUESS WHO'S BACK.  
  
The light stopped. Ivan saw him. Makaro. Standing right in front of him. His long, silver hair was glowing by the light of the moon. His eyes glowed red, with no help from the moon.  
  
"You."  
  
"Me," Makaro said. "Nice Time Wizard trick that girl did. Got you out of the Shadow Realm at your own time. You actually managed to stop me from releasing the Shadow Games."  
  
"I never thought I'd say anything like this, but get back in my body," Ivan said.  
  
"Sure," Makaro said happily. "It's what I was planning to do. I just wanted to tell you that I'm going to be in charge. I'll be the one controlling you. My mind will the primary mind of your, or should I say, our body."  
  
"I'm going to kill you," Ivan said. "Taking my body. Trying to ruin this planet. You deserve to die."  
  
"You want to see me in a different body?" Makaro said. "Fine." His appearance instantly changed. The black clothes, the red eyes, and the silver hair didn't. But the face did. He changed into the dark version of Ken. "This better?"  
  
Ivan stood up from the sand and smiled. "I'm in control of the pendant. The use of its powers have been banished from you."  
  
"True," Makaro said. "How about we duel to solve this?"  
  
"Sure," Ivan said. "But you're not going to use my deck, nor are you going to make a copy of it."  
  
Makaro changed back to the dark Ivan body. He looked down at it and said, "This body isn't real. It's just a spirit. But I can transfer myself to any body, taking control of it. And what better body to steal then the very one that stopped me from controlling this world with her clever little plan."  
  
"You're going to take over Holly?" Ivan asked. "You are sick and twisted."  
  
Makaro laughed. "The Holly girl has a lot of knowledge. Perhaps I can use her mind to my advantage. Or maybe I should take over Ken's body. It looks promising. A lot of dueling skills and rare cards. Or perhaps Stefan's.  
  
Ivan moved closer to Makaro. "Are we just going to talk or am I going to kill you?" Ivan gathered up all his strength into his hand and aimed his fist at Makaro's face. He threw a fierce punch at Makaro's face.  
  
The result of the punch wasn't a black eye, but disappearance. After Ken's fist touched Makaro's face the body just disappeared.  
  
BEHIND YOU.  
  
Ivan quickly turned around. He saw all three of them. All three bodies that were dark versions of his teammates. Ken. Stefan. Holly. They all looked horrible that way. "NOOOOOO!"  
  
Ivan woke up sweating. "God, that was a terrible nightmare," Ivan whispered. He looked down at his pendant. "You're still in there. I know you had something to do with that." He looked at the clock. 7:30 A.M. "Was it a dream? Could it have been real?"  
  
Ivan decided to get up. He got dressed and walked down to the common room of the hotel. It was pretty empty except for Holly, who was sitting on a couch reading a book. She looked up at Ivan and said, "Good morning."  
  
"Hi," Ivan said.  
  
"Excited?" Holly asked.  
  
"You bet," Ivan said.  
  
He walked over toward a window and looked out at the beach. The same beach where he possibly could have had an encounter with Makaro last night. He stared at the beach for a few moments.  
  
"Got something on your mind?" Holly asked.  
  
"On a day like this, my brain's never been working harder," Ivan said.  
  
"Okay, drop the act," Holly said. "You've got to be nervous about the tournament."  
  
"I don't really care about it," Ivan said. "I'm just here to have fun."  
  
"Ivan," Holly said in a serious voice. "This tournament may decide the future of our dueling lives. Imagine if we win. Imagine what the future would be like for us."  
  
"The future doesn't scare me," Ivan said.  
  
The next few hours went by fast. All of the Spirit Breakers were up and ready to duel. Once again, limos had driven all the duelists to a large building. Inside, there were many rectangular tables, made for four duelists on opposite sides of them. But what upset the duelists was that the tables didn't have virtual hologram projectors.  
  
"This isn't as fancy as I thought it would be," Stefan said. "Even our city tournament was better-looking than this."  
  
A man the Spirit Breakers recognized as Mr. Presley walked up in front of all the duelists. "Welcome to the Duel Monsters American Games. I would give you all a big introduction, but we are not in the main tournament yet. This is the elimination round."  
  
All of the duelists in the room paid close attention.  
  
"The elimination round," Mr. Presley continued, "is a chance for us to narrow down our handful of sixteen dueling teams down to eight. Then the real tournament will start in another location, which will have great hologram arenas."  
  
This lifted the spirits of all the duelists.  
  
Mr. Presley took out a piece of paper that looked like a list of different dueling teams. "We will now pair up teams for their first duel. They may agree which table to use. First we have the Spirit Breakers v.s. the Savage Strikers." Both teams found each other and agreed on which table to duel on.  
  
The Savage Strikers consisted of 4 girls that all looked the same. They were quadruplets. They looked Japanese and about the same age as Stefan and Ken. They each had long black hair, pale white faces, and shining brown eyes. Each of the girls wore a t-shirt labeled "Striker" and one of the first four letters of the alphabet in red color.  
  
"Pleased to meet you," Striker C said.  
  
The Spirit Breakers all introduced themselves.  
  
"You may not know," Striker A said, "but we happen to be the top-ranked duelists in the state of Illinois."  
  
"That's very informative," Ivan said. "But can we please get on with this duel?"  
  
"Yes," Striker D said. "If we may choose the order of turns, please. First Striker A will go, then one of your team's duelists, then Striker B, and so forth. When two duelists from a team are defeated, that team loses. We each begin with 5000 Life Points."  
  
"Okay," Ivan said. "The rotation of our team's turns of duelists will go by alphabetical order. So first, Holly will go, then me, then Ken, and then Stefan."  
  
"Okay then," Ken said. The duelists were all arranged in order of the table. Starting at one end, Holly was facing Striker A, then Ivan was facing Striker B, then Ken was facing Striker C, and Stefan was facing Striker D. This would be a team duel, so nobody which duelist was in front of which, attacks can be made to any duelist in the opposing team.  
  
Each duelist drew five cards, and Striker A drew her fifth. She put down a monster with 1800 ATK power and 1000 defense points. "I summon the Bistro Butcher in attack mode."  
  
Holly drew her sixth card and looked at her hand containing: Hane-Hane, Blue-Winged Crown, Gyakutenno Magami, Queen Bird, and Trap Hole.  
  
"I play one monster face-down in defense position," Holly said, putting down her Gyakutenno Megami face-down. And she also put her Trap Hole face- down. "And I will put one more card face-down."  
  
"My turn," Striker B said, drawing a card. She looked at all the faces in the Spirit Breakers. "You will find that us Savage Strikers are big fans of the Ookazi magic card, which takes away 800 Life Points from a player. And as luck strikes, I have already drawn all three of mine. I will play them all at once, using each one on one of your first three players. Ken's, Ivan's, and Holly's Life Points each went down to 4200.  
  
"And also," Striker B continued. "I will place one monster face-down in defense position." And so she did.  
  
"My turn," Ivan said. He looked at his hand. He had a Launcher Spider (ATK/2200 DEF/2500) ready. "I'll play the Launcher Spider in attack mode!" He placed the Launcher Spider in attack mode. "And I'll attack Striker A's Bistro Butcher, destroying it and taking away 400 Life Points from Striker A." He put a card face-down in the Magic and Trap Card Zone. "And I will conclude my turn with putting one card face-down."  
  
"Nice move," Striker C said. "But my hand is nothing to joke about." She drew a card. "I play Seiyaryu, with an attack of 2500 in attack mode and I will attack-"  
  
"Sorry to interrupt," Holly said. "But you are not attacking anything. I'll play my face-down card, Trap Hole, and I will destroy Seiyaryu." Holly's plan worked with no problems.  
  
"My turn," Ken said. He drew a card. Perfect. It would give the Spirit Breakers an early advantage. He had the Blue Eyes White Dragon (ATK 3000 DEF/2500) in his hand. He could do direct damage to Striker C. "I summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon in attack mode and do 3000 direct damage to Striker C."  
  
"My turn," Striker D said. She drew a card. "I will use the magic card Paralyzing Potion, and I shall combine it with the Blue Eyes White Dragon, disabling it from attacking. Also, I will use the Ookazi magic card and do a further 800 direct damage to Holly. And I will place one monster face- down in defensive mode."  
  
Stefan drew a card. "I will place Swordstalker, with an attack of 2000 in attack mode! And with him, I will attack Striker C's Life Points directly, bringing them down to zero."  
  
"Good job," Ivan said. "Every duelist has only moved once and we've already knocked one of their players out of the duel."  
  
"And I'll put one card facedown," Stefan said, ending his turn.  
  
The current score: Striker A: 4600 Striker B: 5000 Striker C: 0 Striker D: 5000 Holly: 3400 Ivan: 4200 Ken: 4200 Stefan: 5000  
  
"My turn again," Striker A said. She drew a card. She smiled. "I will use the Raigeki."  
  
All of the Spirit Breakers gasped.  
  
"The Raigeki destroys all monsters on your opponent's side of the field," Holly said. "And in this case, that's all our monsters!"  
  
"Yes," Striker A said. "That would be correct."  
  
Stefan laughed. Everyone looked at him. "The Raigeki is not be underestimated," Striker B said. "You will surely lose the duel now! You of all duelists should know that!"  
  
"True," Stefan said. He flipped his face-down card up. "That's why I had this Magic Jammer ready. All I have to do is get rid of one card in my hand and then I can negate and destroy your magic card."  
  
"Nice planning," Striker A said, discarding her Raigeki. "But I now have a monster that will easily crush Ivan's little Launcher Spider you put out last turn. I put out the Garnecia Elefantis, with an attack of 2400 and defense of 2000. Ivan, I will attack your Launcher Spider, destroy it, and lower your Life Points to 4000. Then I will play an Ookazi and lower Ken's Life Points to 3400."  
  
"My turn-" Holly began.  
  
"Not quite," Strike A said. "I will use the Pot of Greed magic card, which allows me to draw two cards from my deck." She did. "Oh look! I have just drawn two Ookazi cards!" She looked at all the Spirit Breakers. "Lets see, who will be the next victim of my little point suckers? How about we do another throw at Ken? I will use both my new Ookazi cards on Ken, bringing his Life Points down to 1800."  
  
This is bad Ken thought. They are trying to get rid of me so my Blue Eyes will no longer be a threat.  
  
"Now it's my turn," Holly said. "I will put this monster in face-down defense position." She put down a Hane-Hane. "That will be all."  
  
"My turn will also consist of one monster face-down," Striker B said, putting a monster down. "And I will put down one card face-down in the magic and trap card zone."  
  
"My turn," Ivan said, drawing a card. He smiled. He had a perfect strategy in his hand. "First, I will use the De-Spell magic card to get rid of the Paralyzing Potion on Ken's Blue Eyes. Next, I will put one monster face- down in defense mode." Ivan put down a throw-away monster. "And now I will play the Change of Hearts magic card."  
  
"The Change of Heart?" Striker B said. "Isn't that-"  
  
"It allows me control one of my opponent's monsters for a full turn," Ivan said. "And in this case, a full turn will last a while."  
  
Striker A gasped.  
  
"That's right," Ivan said. "I will control your Garnecia Elefantis. And with your field defenseless, I will use it to attack your Life Points directly, bringing them down to 2200."  
  
This is excellent! Ken thought. Unless Striker D puts out a Paralyzing Potion or something, on my next turn my Blue Eyes can attack Striker A's Life Points directly and we'll win the duel!  
  
"It would be Striker C's turn now," Striker D said, "but she is out of the duel, and the rotation has changed. After my turn, it will be Ken's, then Striker A's, then Stefan's, then Striker's B's, then Holly's-"  
  
"Yes, we know!" Stefan said. "Just get on with it!"  
  
The current score: Striker A: 2200 Striker B: 5000 Striker C: 0 Striker D: 5000 Holly: 3400 Ivan: 4000 Ken: 1800 Stefan: 5000  
  
Striker D drew a card. "I'll use two Ookazi cards and do 1600 direct damage to Ken, dropping his Life Points down to 200."  
  
"My turn!" Ken said. "My Blue Eyes will attack Striker A's Life Points directly and-"  
  
"I will activate my face-down card," Striker B said. "It's Negate Attack, and that will stop any attack thrown at us."  
  
"Oh man," Ken said. "We were about to win."  
  
"My turn," Striker A said. She drew card and smiled. "And I believe I'll be getting my Garnecia Elefantis back."  
  
"Correct," Ivan said. " Now," Striker A said, "I will equip my Garnecia Elefantis with the Axe of Despair, raising its attack to 3400. Now, I will attack and destroy the Blue Eyes White Dragon, and wipe out Ken's remaining Life Points."  
  
"Oh man," Ken said. "I lost."  
  
"I guess it's my turn," Stefan said. "I'll switch my Swordstalker to defense mode. And I'm done." Swordstalker had 1600 defense points, which was barely enough to resist the attack of the Garnecia Elefantis.  
  
"My turn," Striker B said. "I will place a third monster in defense position. That will be all."  
  
Holly figured out how the Savage Strikers worked. Most of the magic cards are kept in Strikers B's, C's, and D's deck." Most of the good monsters are kept in Striker A's deck. They would always rely on Striker A for victory. Bad strategy Holly thought.  
  
"I guess it's my turn," Holly said. She drew a card. "This is duel has been good so far, but it is over. I will flip up one of my face-down monsters, Hane-Hane."  
  
"Oh no," Striker A said.  
  
"Exactly," Holly continued. "Whenever Hane-Hane is flipped up, I get to send a monster back to my opponent's hand. That monster will be your Garnecia Elefantis."  
  
"But that means-" Striker A began.  
  
"Exactly," Holly said. "Your field is defenseless. And I have just he monster to wipe out your remaining Life Points. I summon the Dark Magician!" Holly put down the Dark Magician (ATK/2500 DEF/2100) face-up.  
  
"And now," Holly said. "The Dark Magician will attack your field directly and wipe out the rest of your Life Points. You lose."  
  
"Nice game," Ivan said.  
  
The two teams said good-bye and walked off.  
  
"Well, we've done it," Ken said. "We're in the tournament."  
  
"Yeah, our first match starts in 45 minutes," Holly said.  
  
"This is going to be good," Stefan said.  
  
That minute, Ken swore he heard a familiar voice in his head say, "Very good indeed." A voice way too familiar.  
  
* * * In another part of the room.  
  
Eric's team, the Reckless Raiders, had defeated their opponents.  
  
"Did you set up the list correctly?" Eric asked Drake.  
  
"Yup," Drake said. "I made it so the Spirit Breakers faced the Savage Strikers, the worst team here."  
  
"I saw the Spirit Breakers finish them off a minute ago," Kal, another member of the Reckless Raiders said.  
  
"Excellent," Eric said. "We'll be the ones to face and cream the Spirit Breakers in the final round." The team laughed sinisterly.  
  
Little did Eric know, that a golden pendant he was wearing was glowing. 


End file.
